Peabody Essex Museum – Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones

September 8, 2012 to February 3, 2013

Your little fashionista – or any kid who likes bright colors, sparkly things, wearable art, and outrageous fashions – will enjoy the wit and whimsy of the new exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. Over 250 hats are artfully displayed and include silk turbans, sequined caps, outlandish plumage, and embroidered crowns. Some are breathtaking, some may make you laugh, and others will make you shake your head in wonder. The kids can get in on the action this Saturday, September 15, from 1 pm to 3 pm, during Studio Saturday at the museum. The Head Toppers! program (included with museum admission) gives kids the opportunity to watch a local artist demonstrate her hat-making techniques, then use their own creative genius to make something to take home.

Location: East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970-3783 USA

Contact: 978-745-9500, 866-745-1876

Hours: Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am until 5 pm. Closed Mondays (except holidays)

Cost: Adults $15, Seniors $13, Students $11, Youth (16 and under) and Salem, Mass. residents admitted free.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum – Freedom 7

Opening September 12, 2012

As a nation, we’ve been fascinated by space exploration for many decades. If your family is especially gaga over space travel, you’ll be happy to know that you can now see Freedom 7, the space capsule that launched the first American into space, on exhibit at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The pilot, New Englander Alan Shepard, later famously piloted an Apollo mission to the moon and hit two golf balls on the lunar surface during the mission. The Freedom 7 exhibit also includes photos, memos between Kennedy and Johnson, and videos. It is a wonderful complement to the museum’s permanent Space Program exhibit, which gives you the history and larger political context of the space race during Kennedy’s Administration.

Location: Dorchester, Columbia Point, Boston MA 02125

Contact: (617) 514-1600

Hours: daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with the exceptions of Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day

Cost: $12.00. Admission for seniors over the age of 62 and college students with appropriate identification is $10.00, and for children ages 13-17, $9.00. Children ages 12 and under are admitted free.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Artful Healing

September 15, 2012 - February 18, 2013


Experience the healing power of art in the Artful Healing exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. It features works created by participants in the Artful Healing Program, where Museum educators bring art from the MFA to Mass General, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute to promote healing and inspire hope in patients, their families, and the staff. The participants create art in response to the works from the MFA, and this exhibition showcases some of that art. It features drawings, photographs, and other 2-dimensional media. If you have someone in the family who is ill or recently hospitalized, the Artful Healing exhibition could be an excellent springboard for meaningful discussion about these sensitive topics with your kids.

Location: ‪465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

Contact: (617) 267-9300

Hours: Monday–Tuesday 10 am–4:45 pm, Wednesday–Friday 10 am–9:45 pm, Saturday–Sunday 10 am–4:45 pm

Cost: Adults $25, Seniors (65+) $23, Students (18+) $23, Youths 6 and under free, Youths 7–17 free weekdays after 3 pm, weekends, and Boston public school holidays; otherwise $10.

Boston Children’s Museum - Framed: Step Into Art

September 25, 2012 - January 2, 2013

Every time I read a children’s book about someone stepping right into the artwork in a museum, I wish I could do the same – for real – with my kids. Well, the Boston Children’s Museum has come up with something that comes pretty close. Beginning September 25, visit the Museum’s newest exhibit, Framed: Step Into Art. Eat in Grant Wood’s Diner for Threshers, enjoy the great outdoors in John Singer Sargent's Camp at Lake O'Hara, and add corn husks to the flower tower in Diego Rivera's Corn Festival. See Mona Lisa’s smile, laugh at the parodies, and smile your own mysterious smile in a cutout version of Mona Lisa. More fun, involving a giant chicken and a rooster, awaits you in this exhibition as well.

Location: ‪ 308 Congress Street
, Boston, MA 02210

Contact: (617) 426-6500 or info@BostonChildrensMuseum.org

Hours:  Open every day 10 am - 5 pm, Fridays 10 am - 9 pm

Cost: Adults $14, Children (1-15) $14, Children (0-12 months) free

Note: Boston Children's Museum Will Be CLOSED For maintenance September 17-24 and will re-open September 25.

Institute of Contemporary Arts - Os Gêmeos

August 1, 2012 through Nov. 25, 2012

Got twins? They’ll enjoy the new exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art by two Brazilian artists known as Os Gêmeos, which means “the twins” in Portuguese. Twin brothers, Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo, create wild and wonderful graffiti and urban art featuring themes of hip-hop and Brazilian folklore. If you can get to the ICA for their Play Date, Modern-Day Mythical Mashup, on Saturday, October 27, do! It would be the best way for the kids to experience the art in a hands-on, interactive, multi-sensory way. After looking at the Os Gêmeos exhibition, families can participate in a 3-D myth-making activity and discussion. There will also be a live performance in the theater.

If that day is spoken for on your calendar, there are still other opportunities for multi-sensory art appreciation: Through November 17, on the third Saturday of each month, you can hear local musicians improvise on the sonic sculpture Os Musicos by Os Gêmeos.

In the meantime, check out the public murals created by Os Gêmeos. They are located in Dewey Square on the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway and on the Revere Hotel Boston Common, through the end of the exhibition, November 25, 2012.

Location: 100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA 02210

Contact: 617-478-3100 or info@icaboston.org

Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 10 am–5 pm, Thursday and Friday 10 am–9 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10 am–5 pm. Closed Mondays, except on the following national holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Patriot's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

Cost: $15 general museum admission,
$13 seniors,
$10 students,
free for members and youth 17 +under, free for all from 5 to 9 pm every Thursday for ICA Free Thursday Nights and free for families (up to 2 adults accompanied by children 12 + under) on the last Saturday of each month, with the exception of December.

Museum of Science – Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age

Opens Sunday, October 07, 2012

Fans of the Ice Age movies will get a kick out of the new exhibit coming to the Museum of Science, Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age. Even if you’ve never seen the movies, no doubt you’ll be impressed by the full-scale replicas of massive Ice Age mammals, including Lyuba, a 40,000-year-old baby mammoth discovered by a Siberian reindeer herder in 2007. You’ll also get to see mastodon bones collected by William Clark (as in Lewis and Clark), truly ancient art, giant skulls and tusks, and mammoth kin.

Location: 1 Science Park, Boston, MA 02114

Contact: (617) 723-2500 or information@mos.org

Hours: Regular Exhibit Hall hours are Saturday - Thursday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and

Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. See MOS website for upcoming special hours and IMAX theater hours.

Cost for Exhibit Halls: Adult (12+) $22, Senior (60+) $20, Child (3-11) $19. Check your library for discounted museum passes to the MOS.